In the early days of photography, when people sat to have their portraits taken indoors, exposure times ranged up to ten minutes due to the slow speed of the photographic plates and the typically low light levels indoors. Often, the subjects of the photograph were subjected to being mechanically clamped in place to prevent movement during the exposure. With the advent of artificial lighting, initially the burning of magnesium powder, exposure times were shortened dramatically. Today, many cameras have a flash built-in, allowing users to take flash photographs at any opportunity.
However, the use of a flash does have its drawbacks. When the flash is positioned near the lens of the camera, the eyes of a human subject tend to glow red in the resulting photo. This problem is so common that many photography shops sell special pens used to remove the red-eye from the finished photo. Also, animals' eyes tend to glow similarly, but with different colors. Further, the flash photography of reflective objects may result in very bright specular reflections from the objects, thus detracting from the resulting photograph. There is a need in the art for a method and an apparatus to remove or modify these flash artifacts automatically.